Bread and Breakfast

Being a mom has a million benefits (maybe even countless) but it also brought about increase in weight for me. It was during pregnancy and after giving birth that I have discovered how glorious food was! Also, breastfeeding made me eat like a horse. It was not long before I noticed the pounds that I added was difficult to take off.

My weight history is this — Before getting married: 106 lbs., 2 years after giving birth to Julia: 116 lbs to 120 lbs., 2 years after giving birth to Jansen: 128 lbs! This is now my new average.

I am alarmed.

…if I will not do something today, I will eventually find myself in the next few years increasing weight and struggling to lose it. Especially since I do not eat properly and do not exercise. My midsection is already large like I am about 5 months pregnant, my body is straight without any curves, and generally I feel bloated every day.

…if I will not lose weight, I will not fit in my previous clothes and will have to contend with my maternity clothes! I am still using a few pieces of loose clothing which I wore during the time I was pregnant. It is disconcerting that these still fit! I also hate shopping because I honestly do not look good in most of them. It was very frustrating to try them out and eventually not liking anything. On the plus side, I saved a lot from shopping that I funnelled into food (so we’re back in the beginning).

…if I will not change my eating habits, it will be like I am continually breastfeeding without it’s benefits. Breastfeeding is such a glorious thing! I can eat whatever I want and still not gain weight that much. However, Jansen has been weaned already and all the calories that I eat is not being converted to milk. Instead of maintaining or losing weight, I kept on adding to the scale.

So here’s the plan:

Diet and then Eat Healthy – Diet first, then to maintain the weight, I need to eat healthy. There is a myriad of diets to choose from and I have not taken them really seriously. I found an office mate who has lost a lot of weight because of keto and I asked him if I could order food from him. He agreed! so Keto it is! I have a timeline of two months to go back to my 116 lbs. weight then after that, I can go to a low carb diet to maintain the weight. I am currently having a hard time looking for food that does not have sugar in it! It is such an eye opener to see how many sugar it is in the nutritional information. And it is really expensive to buy sugar free products that’s why I am now a stevia convert. I am saved by coffee americano with heavy cream with stevia packets that I carry in my bag.

Exercise – I enrolled in the gym because I also have an officemate who is a gym buff. So I just asked him and tagged along. It is a requirement to have someone who is more serious about this exercise business than myself because I would probably just slack off after a day. Currently I have 29% body fat. That’s a lot! So here’s hoping that the gym can make my flabby arms tighter and my tummy flatter.

Not give up – The total duration is in two months since Jansen is on vacation and not with me every day. I have the luxury of after office time and I should make the most of it.

Keto bread with butter with the proteinsAnd even though people usually say things like “Beauty is skin deep” or “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, but! … “Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels” – or should I say “as healthy feels”!